Mobile surge will drive strong advertising recovery

Buy this car. Advertisers are infiltrating mobile devices like the Apple iPad, above.

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The global advertising market will grow by a solid 5.1 percent next year and by 5.8 percent in 2015, led by a surge in mobile advertising.

That's the forecast from London media agency ZenithOptimedia, which says in a new report that mobile spending will balloon to $29.4 billion 2015 when it will account for 5.3 percent of the overall $560.1 billion advertising spend. On a percentage basis, that's more than a three-fold increase in mobile's 1.8 share of the pie in 2012, when mobile advertising totaled $8.6 billion, ZenithOptimedia points out.

Mobile's popularity will lead growth in the internet category, which itself will "increase by an average of 15 percent a year between 2012 and 2015, and contribute 66 percent of all growth in ad expenditure across the world," ZenithOptimedia notes in the report, Advertising Expenditure Forecasts.

Mobile represented 9.8 percent of internet advertising last year, and will account for 21.9 percent in 2015. In an email accompanying the release of the forecast, a spokesperson noted,

"The recovery in 2014 and 2015 will be led by internet advertising, the principal engine of adspend growth. ZenithOptimedia is forecasting internet advertising to increase by an average of 15% a year between 2012 and 2015, and contribute 66% of all growth in ad expenditure across the world.Mobile is, by some distance, the fastest-growing segment of internet advertising. ZenithOptimedia is forecasting mobile to grow by 67% in 2013 and at an average of 51% a year between 2012 and 2015, driven by the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets."

The global ad totals for 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, according to the company are, $486.8 billion, $503.6 billion, $529.4 billion and $560.1 billion, respectively. That will happen in large measure because the "mad men" are catching onto smartphones and tablets, Zenith might say.